With consumer tastes rising, products with luxurious exteriors have recently appeared in the home appliance business field, which relates to a refrigerator, a Kimchi refrigerator, an air conditioner, and the like. The luxurious exterior not only provides a product with an additional value, but also makes a product distinguishable. For this, a combination of a metal deposition and a printing technology such as a screen printing and a spray coating, and the like has been introduced. By using these combined technologies, a distinguished and luxurious design has been provided.
In previous approaches, in order to provide a product a luxurious design with a product, a glass is directly coated, and then, the coated glass is attached to home appliances, such as a refrigerator. As illustrated in FIG. 1, in previous approaches, a decorative cover attached to the home appliances has a structure in which a Ni deposition layer is laminated on a glass substrate, a printing layer is laminated on the Ni deposition layer, and a poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) black sheet is laminated on the printing layer.
Such decorative cover is manufactured by a process illustrated in FIG. 2. Specifically, nickel is directly deposited on glass or a substrate under a vacuum condition specialized to a deposition process (a nickel deposition process). The nickel deposition process is performed by a nickel deposition company. Then, the nickel deposited glass or substrate is moved to a printing company to be printed in a specific color (a printing process). Next, the printed product is moved to a sheet company and on the printing layer, a PVC black sheet is laminated. The black sheet prevents discoloration during a manufacturing process, prevents corrosion of several layers caused by gas generated during a polyurethane foaming process, and makes a final color darker.
In the conventional decorative cover, Ni needs to be directly deposited on the glass substrate and the printing needs to be directly performed thereon. This is a very complex technology that may result in a low yield. Since the decorative cover has been supplied through complex steps as illustrated in FIG. 2, it is also difficult to control a product manufacturing process. The decorative cover passes through several steps, such as a supply process and a delivery process, so that there is a concern about damage of a material during the processes.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,817 discloses a reflective sheet having a printed layer. The reflective sheet includes a reflective element, a body layer and a surface protective layer, and has a structure in which the reflective element is interposed between the body layer and the surface protective layer.